Americanization in imported media should have been a practice that we’ve abandoned long ago. Sure, we get stubborn folks like Capcom who insist on relocating series like Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) from Japan to Los Angeles and digging a deeper hole for themselves as the series progresses, but for the most part nowadays, especially in anime, you hardly see downright stupid crap like calling onigiri “jelly-filled doughnuts” as if western children have no idea what a ball of rice is (hint: ‘MURICANS HAVE RICE FIELDS TOO)… right?

Unfortunately for today, the practice of shielding our children from other cultures still persists in some anime aimed at the kodomo – shounen crowd that we manage to bring over here, though thankfully it’s a lot less than what we got several years ago. We have the unfortunate 4Kids titles (we can never, ever talk sense into old guys who think they know what kids like), and some other titles sprinkled here and there by companies that really don’t have much respect for anime as a cultural form of foreign animation, other than as a marketing vehicle towards kids. It was worse back during the 90s and early 2000s, when my (and many others’) beloved Cardcaptor Sakura got chopped up into the putrid Cardcaptors.

You’d think Doraemon, a very iconic JAPANESE anime/manga that gained popularity all over the world as such, would be able to remain Japanese when it’s finally able to make its way to the United States and be able to escape that sort of xenophobic treatment. Haha, yeah. right.

Image Credit: yum from Pixiv

Eat your burgers, Apollo

Everything about thisDoraemon that’s coming to our waters is gonna be set in the United States, name changes and all. A bit strange for a character that’s considered the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs animated cultural ambassador. Not only that, but it’s going to have a bunch of 4Kids-esque edits such as the removal of tears and changing chopsticks to forks. The worst part of it is, some people are actually defending these edits because it’s for kids, so hurrrr it doesn’t matter.

So kids aren’t allowed to be aware that other cultures exist besides American culture? American kids don’t deserve the right to learn about cultures other than their own? They’re too stupid to comprehend chopsticks, rice, and foreign currencies (sorry, but I’m kind of laughing at the latter considering western kids have no problem playing the localized Pocket Monsters franchise with its fictional currency, because actual foreign currency like yen in the Japanese games is so much worse)?

I just love it how dub sympathizers always play the “it’s for kids” card whenever things like Americanization comes to play in an anime. So what? Is there any point in doing these edits then other than xenophobia? Because I’m pretty sure there are plenty of American children’s cartoons that take place in countries like China (Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat) or delve into Spanish culture and the like, but when it’s a Japanese anime that’s aimed at children [and up], it’s suddenly OK to be xenophobic fucktards and act as if kids can’t relate to the content because the characters aren’t surfing after school, going home to their skyscrapers, and putting ketchup on all their food.

Image Credit: saya from Pixiv

And you know what? “Kiddy” content can be good too. Believe it or not, most of Studio Ghibli’s films are aimed at children. If Disney suddenly decided to do pointless edits and change the (often fantasy) locations of those films to America, people are going to care. One Piece and Cardcaptor Sakura are both beloved anime aimed at younger audiences and people were pissed when they received shitty dubs the first time around. Heck, even the Pocket Monsters anime was massacred in the United States back then, even though OLM censors and Americanizes itself nowadays, and the people who were actually aware of it cared.

Sure, a good number of kids would probably watch anything that’s animated, but that’s no reason to expose them to the lowest common denominator of shows – especially when all you need to do is make the characters speak their native language and be done with it. :/ I’d love to be able to watch a cartoon or anime with my child one day without forcing myself through that sort of bullcrap. I watched and enjoyed the Japanese version of Cardcaptor Sakura and Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back with my little sister, so I personally know it’s possible for children to enjoy foreign entertainment without the Americanization and butchering.

As an Asian-American, I find it fascinating that people think that chopsticks in an animated series would be too confusing for children. I’ve lived in America and have eaten with chopsticks all my life. Am I too foreign for this country or what? I think the saddest part about this is that the Japanese companies that produce the 2005 version of Doraemon are possibly the ones allowing this shit to happen.

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I wrote a whole editorial about censorship shenanigans last year and I agree that these changes are unwarranted and outright stupid. People have to realize that Americans has a wide variety of foreign cultures, which make it unique. By changing rice balls into american food, it just ruins the experience. But then again, producers think it’s not safe for children to learn other people’s cultures because ‘MERICA.

@chikorita157: Totally agreed. The US goes on and on about being a melting pot, but when it comes to things like this where dubbers are afraid to expose the audience to the Japanese culture in their Japanese import media, it starts sounding like a total lie.
Iconic manga characters like Doraemon lose part of their identity when you change their nationality. I’d feel the same way with any other character. Not to mention the whole chopsticks thing is stupid and whoever would argue against it being stupid is probably… stupid.
If Europe can get American programs as-is, so can America with everything else.

I remember being a child and ENJOYING seeing all the different things the characters from a different culture did that wasn’t in my country,their names,foods,traditions,everything.
and I also remember being extremily confused every time I happened to have the bad luck of watching an americanized dub and thinking “what?,that’s a hamburger?” so if the purpose of this is making this easier to understand for kids (because ovbiously their intellects aren’t hight enough to remeber or pronunce a name other than peter)then it is backfiring.
as a very big Doraemon fan I wish with all my energy for that shit they are making to fail.

I agree with most of your post in principal. As an American, I absolutely hate Americanizations of anime because it robs the title of its cultural richness in exchange for commercial profitability. Which is why I don’t support said releases. I also watch anime because of its unique cultural value allowing me to be entertained while learning something about a different culture at the same time!

However this is where I have to play the role of devil’s advocate. And the simple reality of anime is that its a business first and foremost and to license a title over here is expensive. But most companies attempt this in the hope that a title will sell enough to recover any localization costs and hopefully turn a profit.

The sad reality is that most Americans don’t really value the cultural aspect of anime as long as its accessible and entertaining. Then you have the other sad reality in the fact that heavily censored, dubbed, and localized anime sell better than their counterparts. Pokemon and Yugioh are some of the most profitable anime in the states. While the uncut version of Yugioh didn’t even make a dent in sales.

So we are to blame just as much for the bastardization of anime as the companies themselves. If people actually cared about the cultural integrity of anime as they do for live action foreign films then businesses would change their approach. However for the time being, this is why this type of localization will happen to Doraemon.

@henslight: Yeah, it feels very insulting to have your intelligence put into question like that as a kid. Kids are curious and TV shows that present a different culture other than their own will fascinate them, and being exposed to enough of it will help them grow up to appreciate the differences people have from each other. When I become a parent someday, I’d love it if my child were to become that kind of person.
@TsukuyomiMagi99: – Most anime nowadays get the “faithful” treatment because it is more profitable though, as well as dual audio on the uncut DVD releases. With anime being expensive to license as it is, we have dubbing being more expensive than subbing. Then we have all the wasted money doing pointless edits even when people really could care less. There’s a particular reason why most anime companies, and game companies like Atlus (who took their time to re-draw everyone in their old Persona 1 localization as white or black people), don’t do this anymore with import content, because it’s much cheaper to keep things unchanged, and at the very least you’ll get your faithful fans supporting the release if it’s untouched (or contains dual audio). I mean, it’s like in video games. With Capcom adding unneeded changes to Resident Evil to appeal to the Call of Duty/casual audiences, are Call of Duty players even buying the series? Not really, it’s not enough to outdo the fans they already had. And with those unnecessary changes, the fans they already had aren’t really buying the series anymore because it’s… not Resident Evil, and the new shoot-em’-up audience they gathered never made up for it. Even if it fails to sell well with a wider audience, at least you have a fanbase that will buy it regardless.
-The story behind the uncut version of the Yuugiou DVDs is very dubious. The uncut DVDs actually outsold the edited DVDs, at least the ones that were being sold alongside each other before the uncut version was discontinued, 4Kids just took it off the shelves without any real reasoning. One source reports that it was because they were cutting into the sales of the edited version. Alternatively, was it because the sales didn’t justify the production of two versions? If so, that makes the edited version even more senseless other than to keep their shoddy merchandise marketable to kids (honestly, Shounen Jump anime/manga like Yuugiou and Shaman King are better off bumping up their target audience to teens in the United States, like One Piece, to keep true to the original content). The Uncut DVDs were really lame though. Sure, it was better than the edited version, but the subtitles were straight from the (uncut adaptation) English audio and plenty of names were still Americanized in the dub track. Fans were better off sticking with Viz’s translation of the manga in that case since the manga’s better in general too, anyway.
For that matter, the subtitled Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs were also much more profitable for Geneon compared to Nelvana’s English dub “Cardcaptors”. As was One Piece’s faithful FUNimation dub compared to the 4Kids’ version.
– With Pocket Monsters, I don’t think it would have hurt if 4Kids didn’t remove the Japanese culture and anime jokes in the series or butcher the movies in the olden days. I mean, would people have really cared if they didn’t pretend Satoshi and co weren’t at a Japanese festival (and considering people have no problems with foreign names like Goku/Wukong, the names being the same for that matter)? Or if parents actually enjoyed watching the movies with their children too instead of reprimanding them, because of all the parental bonuses Takeshi Shudo adds to his stories (the first, in particular)? I guess you can’t get around Kojirou’s inflatable breasts or some of the early questionable anime gags if you wanted Pocket Monsters to be appropriate for American kids, but still, other than those, they didn’t really need to change it that much in order for it to be profitable. Conversely, keeping the famous Mewtwo movie, which had a laughably bad English adaptation that was arguably what most people in the United States was exposed to the most in terms of Pocket Monsters, faithful to the original might have had some people taking the franchise a bit more seriously than they do now.
– Yes, that announcement of their bankruptcy some time back was a happy day for me. It’s like learning that your childhood bully is now a homeless beggar. lmao

And nowadays the only companies who are doing dual audio are companies that have tremendous resources (Disney) or have friendly ties to Japanese companies (Funimation). Most companies today only provide subtitle releases because that’s all they can afford.

“There’s a particular reason why most anime companies, and game companies like Atlus (who took their time to re-draw everyone in their old Persona 1 localization as white or black people), don’t do this anymore with import content, because it’s much cheaper to keep things unchanged, and at the very least you’ll get your faithful fans supporting the release if it’s untouched (or contains dual audio).”

And yet they never released an uncensored Hitler in Persona 2. Games like Atelier Ayesha have a butchered English dub completely omitting the Japanese dub. The Yuugioh Tag Force games are censored even though the OCG/TCG game has plenty of adult players. Also the cards in Yuugioh are still released today in that same fashion. Senran Kagura almost didn’t make it over here because of controversy and when it did the characters ages were omitted, Monster Monpiece was censored, Bravely Default was censored, Mugen Souls was censored.

If you want less sexual examples early Final Fantasy games (VI for example) still have not seen an uncensored release despite this new age of anti-censorhip that is going on and Pokemon still sells in the millions/billions despite the censorship.

“With Capcom adding unneeded changes to Resident Evil to appeal to the Call of Duty/casual audiences, are Call of Duty players even buying the series? Not really, it’s not enough to outdo the fans they already had. And with those unnecessary changes, the fans they already had aren’t really buying the series anymore because it’s… not Resident Evil, and the new shoot-em’-up audience they gathered never made up for it. Even if it fails to sell well with a wider audience, at least you have a fanbase that will buy it regardless.”

Games the deviated away from the Biohazard formula (4-6) still sold very well. To say whether it was by new fans who loved the action formula or faithful’s who wish to see the series return to its roots is unknown so I won’t speculate here. However I think that Capcom is just greedy.

“The uncut DVDs actually outsold the edited DVDs, at least the ones that were being sold alongside each other before the uncut version was discontinued”

Really, Wow? Do you have any links or anything I can use to verify this?

All I heard about the subject was the simple fact that the seiyuu who voiced Yugi claimed some kind of copyright violation.

As for Pocket Monsters, we will never know whether or not it would have been just as successful without the heavy localization or not. But I’ll get the unlocalized version anyday of the week. I’ve even taken up learn Japanese pokemon names!

The simple point I am making in this entire reply is that if we are passed the stage of wanting uncut content. Why are some business still using this old business model for Americans? Especially considering the access kids have to the internet?

And nowadays the only companies who are doing dual audio are companies that have tremendous resources (Disney) or have friendly ties to Japanese companies (Funimation). Most companies today only provide subtitle releases because that’s all they can afford.”

We can blame the availability of the internet for that. Then there’s the fact that many Japanese titles are still quite niche even though anime as an art form has become ingrained into pop culture. The titles that guarantee big sales are pretty much the mainstream titles like Bleach or Haruhi. But the fact of the matter is that nowadays we either have
A) in many cases, the affordable sub-only release by companies like Sentai Filmworks or NISA
Or B) the dual-audio release by juggernauts like FUNimation that include a faithful dub.
As you said, dubs are already expensive, and most companies have realized that people hardly give a crap if the characters are in Japan or not, so instead of wasting money making an “adaptation” when they do dub, they stick to the original content and make a “translation”. Even if dubbers tried to retool, say, a niche-in-America title like Mononoke as your average Saturday-morning cartoon pretending it’s not in Japan, would that really boost the sales a significant amount, or are they just digging a hole for themselves?

“And yet they never released an uncensored Hitler in Persona 2. Games like Atelier Ayesha have a butchered English dub completely omitting the Japanese dub. The Yuugioh Tag Force games are censored even though the OCG/TCG game has plenty of adult players. Also the cards in Yuugioh are still released today in that same fashion. Senran Kagura almost didn’t make it over here because of controversy and when it did the characters ages were omitted, Monster Monpiece was censored, Bravely Default was censored, Mugen Souls was censored.

If you want less sexual examples early Final Fantasy games (VI for example) still have not seen an uncensored release despite this new age of anti-censorhip that is going on and Pokemon still sells in the millions/billions despite the censorship.”
Regarding Innocent Sin, that was a long time ago. Even the PSP version of the Japanese had censored out Hitler because their rating systems have changed. The localization of the PSP version is quite faithful to that port. But yeah, unlike anime companies, there are plenty of game companies that are still a bunch of pansies when it comes to adhering to censorship guidelines (like NISA occasionally editing ages and crap). Still, the point of the matter is, is Americanization part of those censorship guidelines? I *might* be able to forgive game companies for censoring a bit of questionable content in order to bring it over here, since it might not have been in their power (I still don’t like it), but once they start turning Japanese people into white and black stereotypes is when I start to question if it’s even necessary (Persona Revelations).
The excuse should be “we can’t show [insert censored content] because we might get backlash or violate protocols”, but when you fill in the blanks with certain races or foreign cultures, there’s really no real way to reason around the implied xenophobia/racism, and some companies are just too stubborn to get this. Thankfully, I don’t think game localizations do this much anymore, besides a few examples. Now it’s just a problem with them developing a backbone to show uncensored content (and keeping up with an accurate translation).
(@ the Yuugiou cards, oh Konami how I hate you. And with Bravely Default and such, damn you NoA (and Square Enix). NoA censored a costume in Spirit Camera too. Senran Kagura Burst barely got the cut because it’s actually not that lewd compared to the other games in the series… oh how I dread future titles that come over here on Nintendo consoles)
“Games the deviated away from the Biohazard formula (4-6) still sold very well. To say whether it was by new fans who loved the action formula or faithful’s who wish to see the series return to its roots is unknown so I won’t speculate here. However I think that Capcom is just greedy.“Biohazard 6 sold below expectations. Older fans didn’t mind 4 because while it became more action-y, it was treated as a fun departure – there were still plenty of old school Biohazard moments and it at least tried to be horror. Then 5 came, fans bought it… and dropped the series from there because it took everything non-Biohazard about 4 and turned it into a full game. Then we have all of the side games released between 5 and 6 dropping the ball, with only Revelations being a true RE game. Coupled with the fact that 6 is just a really messy game in general, and the fact that Capcom is a stubborn bunch of people that don’t want to listen to their fans – these factors definitely affected the RE6 sales in some way.
“Really, Wow? Do you have any links or anything I can use to verify this?“
Searching through Google will give you some answers in the form of forums (Toonzone, ANN, Kazenshuu, etc.). Apparently on 4Kids’ page (they regularly took down content after certain periods, so it’s no longer there) they said they discontinued the uncut DVDs because they were “competing” with the edited releases (semi-confirmed here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2005-04-24/alfred-r-kahn). And according to a lot of these threads, the uncut DVDs outsold the edited DVDs during their short tenure. Sounds a lot like 4Kids’ usual jargon.

Dang… I remember this. I was on that thread too. Ugh, I’m having a headache reading some of my comments (I was like, 12 and a little fanboy).
“The simple point I am making in this entire reply is that if we are passed the stage of wanting uncut content. Why are some business still using this old business model for Americans? Especially considering the access kids have to the internet?”
Ignorance is a good answer for it, unfortunately. It’s 2014, and kids are aware of differing cultures more than ever and realize that it’s OK to be surrounded by people who are different, but unfortunately there are some out there that just aren’t aware that our world is changing.

You are a weeaboo moron. Stop acting like you’re Japanese. Pokemon is not DiC/Cloverway. Nintendo owns the franchise through their subsidiary, The Pokemon Company, it’s their own dub. Taking Japanese culture out of the dub (such as misnaming onigiri as “donuts”), doesn’t mean it’s an awful dub. It’s called “Cool Japan”. No matter how it’s westernized, it’s still popular internationally.

Do You want a racist Jynx that offended the African-American? Do you want a Epileptic Porygon that gave Japanese children Seizures or a Safari zone shooting at Ash/Satashi and the gang with his rifle? I don’t care if you like James cross-dress in an inflatable bodysuit. He always crossdress in some episodes.

Viz dubbed the movies and kept the English names intact. Please don’t tell Viz to redub the entire series from scratch that the Pokemon Company currently dubs especially telling them to keep the original Japanese names and the culture, or else you will ruin the franchise these fans who love the PC dub will hate you on social media. Keep your hands off Pokemon, please. It’s Nintendo/Pokemon Company’s property, they can do what they want. Don’t force your weeaboo trash on the company.

You’re not Japanese. Pretending that you are one is an insult, offensive, and racist to the Japan’s sovereignty, nationality, and patriotism.

It is highly suggested to actually read the article before you comment, thank you.
@Josh Taylor: – “Weaboo moron”? Wow, so you’re THAT guy. There are anime fans like me, who are on the modest mid-line of loving Japan and respecting that it’s only one of many interesting cultures around the world. That, or they’re neutral. Then we have fans who are, at times, obsessed with Japanese culture to the point where it does get obnoxious, but hey, at least they’re putting their energy into ENJOYING something. Then there are asshats like you who act as if being a bigot about Japan makes you better than other anime fans. I like Japanese cartoons, but I hate Japan! DURHURHUR SO EDGY I AM SUPERIOR AMERICAN
– I never said Nintendo dubbed Pokemon. :/ The only time I ever mentioned Nintendo was in reference to censorship of GAMES published on their consoles, not specifically Pokemon.
– In regards to the anime, I was talking about the 4Kids dub. OLM censors itself nowadays.
– Game Freak owns Pocket Monsters, not Nintendo. It’s a second-party franchise, Nintendo owns the rights to publish those games exclusively under Nintendo consoles and make merchandise for it. They don’t own nor make the franchise itself.
– It’s Satoshi, not Satashi.
– Viz didn’t dub the movies, they’re in charge of the license to them. DuArt dubs the movies as well as the series. Though, Viz being in charge of the license is the reason why the translation of the newer movies are okay in comparison to the series (but they’re pretty terrible to begin with, so it’s not saying much)
– “or else you will ruin the franchise these fans who love the PC dub will hate you on social media.”What a tragedy.
– I never demanded Viz to redub anything. I suggest you brush up on your reading comprehension at your local community college. (But srsly, how dare they make an uncut version with subtitles? Modern anime companies so soooooo stoopid.)
– Yes, I want a black Rougela/Jynx as much as I want a black Mr. Fucking Popo. People get pissy when it’s black, but when there’s Asian stereotypes (or anything else for that matter) in American media, no one gives a shit. Double standard, much?
– Why would I blame 4Kids for not dubbing an episode that was pretty much burned by the Japanese government too? What does that have ANYTHING to do with the topic of acting as if Americans are only white, and that introducing kids to other cultures is dangerous? 4Kids did some pretty racist, prudish, and xenophobic edits, but that wasn’t one of them.
– The Safari Zone warden never shot Satoshi and his friends with his gun. It’s called humor, stop being a prude. Go and boycott Looney Tunes while you’re at it.
– The main point of the post isn’t even about “Pokemon and redubbing it”, it’s about “Doraemon and how stupid it is that the dub is censoring crap like chopsticks as if little muhrican kids never went to a Panda Express”. This is America, and it has ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE. Not just whites.
– Where the hell did I pretend I was Japanese? Saying I’m Asian-American means I’m Japanese specifically? lol
– I like Japan, so I’m being… racist and offensive? Are you mentally ILL?
– “OH GOD, YOU ARE A FAN OF JAPANESE CULTURE AND KEEPING THINGS TRUE TO THE WAY THEY ARE, PLEASE KILL YOURSELF NOW BECAUSE YOU ARE CLEARLY SUBHUMAN TRASH. WEABOO WEABOO WEABOOO BLAH BLAH BLAH” You’re seriously the type of person that annoys the living shit out of me. Go back to the other “weaboo”-spouting bigots and Sailor Moon boycotters on tumblr.

(P.S. Using the word “weaboo” already makes you a giant tool. Do you even know where that word came from?)

Please explain to me you dub elitist/hipster why its such a fucking sin to want something in its original format. How the fuck do you think that it makes me better than you?! On top of that if I was a fan of foreign films outside of Japanese anime why would I then be considered “cultured”. I don’t go around spouting random Japanese phrases towards people and don’t even mention anime unless the person I am conversing with is into as well out of common courtesy.

So what the fuck gives you the right to spout such a stupid ass slur? Especially towards people who are just enthusiastic about their entertainment and just have a different preference in how they enjoy it?

TsukuyomiMagi99: I agree with both of your comments. The whole “it’s their product, they can do anything they want!” is a pretty lame way to convince someone to stop wanting a product to be a certain way because it’s my money and I can do whatever I want with it too. LOL
Everyone has their rights, but being a corporate company that sets out to make consumer products, it’s extremely silly for say that consumer criticism (or criticism from would-be consumers) shouldn’t exist and that we should just sit back, buy it, and appreciate them like gods. What are we supposed to say? “Thank you for selling me stuff, master?”